[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Falsify" Episodes 11-122017/08/08,
Team Good is finally on the same page and although they do not have group meetings yet, their joint investigation leads them back to familiar faces, some of which are too close for comfort. Seok-min continues his backstabbing tango with Tae-won and the latter is busy trying to turn the narrative against Aeguk with the help of his Noah lawyer accomplice,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 16 Final2016/09/14,
It's uncanny how "W" closes out with an exploration of loss and withdrawl that has less to do with what's happening in the actual story and more to do with how we, as viewers, come to terms with the reality of the story finally ending. Make no mistake- Yeon-joo is almost entirely a passive observer here. And whether or not Yeon-joo gets a happy ending, she is leaving us in much the same way that Cheol is leaving her. The epilogue can't really change that,...More

[Guest Review] "Whistle Blower" 2016/09/10,
In my opinion, cinema owes to do much more than just stimulate the senses (in the case of art-house films) and/or entertain (in the case of mainstream films). I think that it should also deal realistically with subjects such as politics, history, corruption, and other issues that hold the public interest, outside of art. The fact is that the medium, usually reaches its apogee when technical prowess is combined with important, actual stories. In that aspect, the recent turn of S. Korean cinema towards similar subjects ("Inside Men", "Haemoo", "National Security" are just a few of the examples) is, definitely, a turn of the better. Furthermore, the public seems to respond, since most of these productions become commercial hits. "Whistle Blower" belongs to this tendency and is one of the finest samples,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 152016/09/08,
Even though there's not all that much physical violence this episode the morbidity is pretty strong. As the main characters find themselves with increasingly little ability to change the webtoon world they become more and more resigned to fate. Well, Cheol and Seong-moo do anyway. Yeon-joo, having largely managed to recover from her near fatal bullet wound, is determined to keep trying to make an effort to shoot for a happy ending,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 142016/09/07,
At this point "W" is in a stage of kind of being an epilogue but not quite. Yeon-joo is in the hospital, and everyone is of course worrying about how that's going to work out. However, another more nagging question yet remains. I'm not referring to the worldbuilding aspect of "W", but rather how all these silly webtoon antics have consistently resulted in people actually getting killed. Watching characters seriously react to the prospect of a loved one dying puts all of this in sharp perspective,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 132016/09/01,
Cheol's two reactions to the discovery that his world is a webtoon are completely opposite of one another. This is entirely a matter of context. The first Cheol discovered the existence of the "Real" world through standard deductions as a part of his normal everyday work, and the revelation destroyed him. This Cheol hit absolute rock bottom, to the point of contemplating suicide- so the existence of a "Real" world to him was a form of salvation,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 122016/08/31,
For once, an episode of "W" ends without a shocking revelation prompting an intense cliffhanger. To date director Jeong Dae-yoon has done a very good job keeping the excitement quotient so high that the general craziness of the overall proceedings has never been in question. But this time, with Cheol focused as he is on life in the "Real" world, rather than his revenge fantasy, well, the more magical aspects of the story are more difficult to ignore,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 112016/08/25,
The "Real" world in "W" is starting to resemble a horror story. Granted, all there really is to worry about is Seong-moo's freaky make-up and the whole hands popping through computer screens issue, but even that is more than enough to get across that the situation is legitimately scary. Even if, as Yeon-joo quickly discovers, these are actually relatively easy problems to overcome as long as she keeps her wits about her,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 102016/08/24,
The production team in "W" is able to get quite a bit of mileage out of just looking at scenes from a new angle. It helps that the most dynamic scenes in "W" are so crazy and out there they're no less shocking the second time around. Even so, those of you wondering just how it is that the villain got so powerful there's a surprisingly convincing logistical explanation for that. It's little wonder that we didn't think of it, since Seong-moo forgot too and he's the one who writes this stuff,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 92016/08/18,
My main takeaway from "W" at this point is that good writing is hard. Much like the last time Cheol tried to "solve" the problems created by Seong-woo's inability to finish the story in a convincing, compelling fashion, this time too we're left with a resolution that's just kind of...blech. In a lot of ways this is a problem with the serial detective format in general. If the main character devotes all of his energy to solving episodic crimes with no progression in the main plot, it's pretty inevitable that the final personal backstory case is going to be a letdown,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 82016/08/17,
The shrouded static villain is weirdly sympathetic in a way, because its entire existence is the arbitrary creation of a Godlike figure who never bothered to impart any meaningful personality traits onto his creation. I can't help but see this character as being the personification of fan rage. Sure, we've only been watching "W" for seven episodes, but the in-universe fanbase has been waiting years only to be suddenly told that plot arc isn't going to end because now the story's a romance,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 72016/08/10,
A disproportionate amount of energy in "W" is spent on writer Song Jae-jeong justifying her own story. Well, technically Yeon-joo is the one rationalizing why Cheol's story needs to continue, but the script in "W" constantly feels like Song Jae-jeong laying out her own scriptwriting process bare for us all to see. And yes, Kang Cho-yun is in fact a real person who really did compete at the Olympics once upon a time. Wherever Kang Cho-yun is today, I imagine she's rather bewildered that her name has come up in pop culture now all of a sudden,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 62016/08/04,
Recent events have led "W" to a bit of an impasse. Cheol figures out a way to "solve" all the problems mentioned by Seong-moo, but as expected this solution is completely unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint. It also brings up all sorts of weird issues with quantum mechanics and zen philosophy. Can Cheol really "die" if he's not alive in the first place? To what extent does Cheol even exist if his actions are defined by the "Real" people who observe him?,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 52016/08/03,
There's a perspective shift from Yeon-joo to Cheol here, which ends up explaining a lot of details about the premise of "W" that until now have been unclear. First of all, we know what the title "W" refers to internally now, and have a better grasp of the sequence of events that led Cheol from tragic backstory to genius investigator. But the more important shift is Cheol's emotional state. By reading the "W" comic book, Cheol can see his entire life pass in front of him,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 42016/07/28,
One of the factors that makes Cheol such a fascinating protagonist is that he is legitimately really smart. Even though the guy's a character in a genre thriller comic, Cheol thinks like an actual real person. When crazy bizarre contrivances jump out of nowhere for the sole apparent purpose of killing him, Cheol merely notes that there is no such thing as coincidence. And he's right, even if the real answer is much stranger than Cheol could have ever possibly imagined,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 32016/07/27,
Yeon-joo does not have the slightest idea how to explain the existence of Cheol's parallel universe, so she starts investigating the only place with potential answers- her dad's annotations. But Seong-woo's authorial notes aren't special features intended for reader enjoyment. They're surprisingly painful recollections of a difficult time in Seong-woo's life, and how the main plot movements in "W" were all reactions to Seong-woo's emotional state. That is, until Cheol took on a life os his own and started building Seong-woo's life much as Seong-woo built Cheol's,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 22016/07/21,
It would appear that on top of her other characteristics Yeon-joo is also a drama critic. Go figure. Well, in all fairness practically every real-life character in "W" has some sort of strong opinion about how fictional stories should proceed. And Seong-moo, in typical famous author fashion, arrogantly dismisses any notion that there is a "correct" way to write a story. He wants to kill Cheol and by golly, he's going to succeed no matter how obviously contrived the process is,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "W" Episode 12016/07/20,
Cheol (played by Lee Jong-suk) is an Olympic level marksman who is framed for a horrible crime, wallowing away in despair before finally becoming determined to locate the true perpetrator. Cheol is also a fictional character in a webtoon by Seong-moo (played by Kim Ee-seong), who is also the father of Yeon-joo (played by Han Hyo-joo), a clumsy doctor who juggles medical responsibilities with an active social position as the daughter of a famous webtoon artist. Matters take a turn for the weird when Yeon-joo is left alone with a manuscript that appears to clumsily kill Cheol off,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul-ho" Episode 72016/04/18,
Deul-ho finally discovers his true calling beyond the case of Michael Jeong and Eun-jo incorporates herself in our team, which is always welcoming her presence. Episode 7 marks the opening of a case not related to our main villain, at least not so far. Most importantly, Deul-ho's triumphant return faces some problems, as he struggles between his role as a father and a newfound hero for the people,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "Little Brother" + DVD Giveaway2016/02/13,
Han-i (played by Park Ji-bin) is the annoHan-ing younger brother to Han-byeol (played by Seo Dae-han). They live in typical sibling conflict, such that when Han-byeol expresses discomfort and apparent sickness, Han-i is dismissive and just decides to play video games rather than do anything useful. Unfortunately for the brothers and their parents, Han-byeol really is very sick. From there "Little Brother" quickly turns into a waiting game to see whether or not Han-byeol will die,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "May 18" + DVD Giveaway2016/01/30,
Jin-woo (played by Lee Joon-gi) is a high school student in Gwangju, circa 1980. Sin-ae (played by Lee Yo-won) is a local nurse who goes to his church. Min-woo (played by Kim Sang-kyung) is his older working brother. Heung-soo (played by Ahn Sung-ki) is her father, a former military officer. They all live fairly normal lives. But a meeting with history ruptures this destiny, as a military crackdown provokes a full-scale resistance movement lasting for a full week,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Throne"2015/11/14,
Prince Sado (played by Yoo Ah-in) appeared, at a young age, to have all the proper talents necessary to become an effective ruler of Joseon Korea. But as Prince Sado grew older, it became clear that he was a sensitive child poorly suited to statecraft though well attuned to art. King Yeongjo (played by Song Kang-ho) was disappointed. Though King Yeongjo was a great King, he lacked the patience for anything except perfection. And unfortunately, the glaringly imperfect Sado was King Yeongjo's only surviving son,...More

"Bubble Gum" Lee Dong-wook, so caring2015/10/19, Source, Lee Dong-wook became a Chinese medicine doctor who doesn't only treat illnesses but the patients' minds too.
He plays Park Ri-han, a handsome, skilled, and considerate Chinese medicine doctor. The original romantic comedy king is being highly anticipated for his role in the new tvN drama "Bubble Gum",...More

[Spoiler] 'Last' Park Ye-jin calls Lee Beom-soo an evil2015/08/28, Source,
On August 28th's episode of JTBC Friday & Saturday drama, "Last", Kwak Heung-sam (Lee Beom-soo) came to pick up Seo Mi-joo (Park Ye-jin), who was drinking alone at a cart bar and she poured out spiteful words to him.
On this day, Kwak Heung-sam asked Seo Mi-joo how things had gone with lobbying with CEO Yoon's son. Seo Mi-joo answered, "I met him and lured him and exchanged business cards", while she was looking at him hatefully. Kwak Heung-sam said, "Don't hate me" and "It's you who accepted the offer under the condition you get what you wanted to know". He mentioned that Seo Mi-joo had made the deal so she could find out the address of Ryoo Jong-goo (Park Won-sang)'s daughter,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Preview] "Last"2015/07/18,
After romantic melodrama 'My Love Eun-dong', jTBC has something quite different coming up. "Last" is not looking like the kind of show which drama audiences are used to, but its cast, approach and the fact that it is based on a popular webtoon might deliver something substantial or at least entertaining. On the other hand, it might be shallow and messy, but one can hope,...More

Posters for "Last" revealed2015/07/14, Source, The second poster and character posters of the new JTBC drama "Last" has been revealed.
Unlike the first poster, the second poster features all five of the main characters in the drama,...More

[HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...2014/09/27, K-Films Coming Soon:
★★★★★ "Slow Video": A boy struggles to face the world due to his extreme visual acuity, but after 20 years of staying home watching dramas he finally decides to give the world another chance. (10/02)
★★★★ "Jungle Shuffle": A collaborative animation between Korea and Mexico that follows two best friends in the Lacedon jungle as they try to save a princess. (10/02)
★★★★★ "Scarlet Innocence": A married university professor is seduced then harassed by a fatale femme who threatens to derail his whole life. (10/02)
★★★★★ "Mizo": A sexually abused girl is dumped by her foster parents and then tracks down her biological father to punish him for abandoning her. (10/02)
★★★★★ "Whistle Blower": A journalist uncovers and blows the whistle on the illegal and deceitful happenings around Dr. Lee's stem-cell research. (10/02),...More

"The Stone" Cho Dong-in mesmerizes the film industry2014/06/10, Source,
Rookie actor Cho Dong-in from the film "The Stone" has impressed the film industry with his Park Hae-il-like looks and originality, as well as the film's uses on the subject matter involving a game of delivering a message about life.
After a successful press conference and VIP premiere, "The Stone" is currently trending because of Cho Dong-in, who took on the role of Min-soo, an amateur but genius 'go' player. Having some knowledge about the game of 'go' is what got him this role and a successful completion of "The Stone" with Kim Roi-ha and Park Won-sang. He delivers a life story with the game of 'go' and shows some action in the movie as well,...More

[HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...2014/06/07, K-Films Coming Soon:
★★★★★ "The Stone": Min-su, an extremely talented Go player, is recruited by a local gang boss to be his personal tutor, but matters soon become serious when the game starts to have real-world consequences. (06/12)
★★★★ "You Are My Vampire": A struggling young writer wants to pen a vampire novel and in the process finds some strange real-world inspiration to fuel her curiosity. (06/12)
★★★★ "An American Friend": A Korean-American secret agent tries to sell high-priced artwork, and as he's being chased around encounters an intriguing woman interested in making a deal. (06/12)
★★★★ "Gyeongju": A man nostalgically travels back to the city of Gyeongju and finds new adventure in old places with fresh faces. (06/12)
★★★ "For The Emperor": A disgraced baseball player losses everything and then enters a crime ring that comes cloaked in both pleasure and pain. (06/12),...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Stone"2014/06/06,
Min-soo (played by Cho Dong-in) is an angry man without purpose. He's a professional quality Go player, but can't break into the higher levels of competition. His daily life is interrupted by gangsters who take an interest in Min-soo's personality. Most immediately and obviously, he's an expert at Go, and this strategy can also be utilized in real life. The reasoning at this point gets a little hazy. I'm assuming someone who knows more about how the game of Go works could appreciate it more than I did,...More

[HanCinema's Afterwords] KOFIC Podcast Review - Special Episode2014/01/04, In this Episode: Korean Cinema in 2013…
KOFIC recently launched "Korean Cinema Today", a bimonthly podcast that's all about the wonderful world of Korean cinema. Hosted by Pierce Conran, the show features the latest Korean cinema news, features, discussions, and interviews with special guests from the industry. In this special episode, Pierce has Darcy Paquet in studio to talk about the past year's big features, their top 5 films of the year, industry trends, as well as mention some of the big period films coming our way in 2014.
"Korean Cinema Today" is only four episodes in, and so while they are still finding their feet, the show is shaping up to be another fantastic new initiative by KOFIC. The show is hosted by Pierce Conran (editor of Modern Korean Cinema, Twitch Korean film correspondent, and writer for the Korean Film Council) and thus far he has already had interviews with Kwak Gyeong-taek ("Friend 2"), Lee Cheol-ha ("Hello Orchestra"), and has Darcy Paquet (one of Korea's leading and dedicated film critics) on the show to talk about 2003 (a landmark year for Korean cinema). In this special episode Darcy joins Pierce once again to discuss the incredible year that was 2013,...More

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Medical Top Team" Episode 162013/12/07,
This episode both improved in some ways and deteriorated in some ways. Put those two together, and we have a stagnating show. It really began to go downhill when Ba-wi left the show. Now it's left with insecure doctors, weak romance, too little humor and too much politics. It's saving grace is now the chemistry between the minor characters such as neurologist Jeong Hoon-min and radiologist Bae Sang-gyu. Their odd couple bromance is refreshing and heartfelt. Dr. Jo (Park Won-sang) can be grouped together with them,...More

[HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...2013/11/02, K-Films Coming Soon:
★★★★★ "Red Family": A coming-of-culture drama about a family of North Korean spies misfiring undercover (11/06)
★★★★★ "Commitment": The son of an ex-North Korean spy is torn between higher powers as he fights for those he loves.(11/06)
★★★★ "I Love You, Jin-yeong!": A struggling writer gets romantically involved with a director who offers to make her dreams come true. (11/07)
★★★★★ "The Weight": A tragic telling of the life of a hunchbacked mortician and his transgendered stepsister.(11/07)
★★★★ "Passion Flower": A dying man hires a caregiver to help him, but soon their relationship flourishes beyond their expectations. (11/07)
★★★★ "Steel Cold Winter": A small-town outcast and big-city newbie find each other and form a fatalistic bound out in the country. (11/07),...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] The Torturous "National Security"2013/06/01,
In "Unbowed", director Chung Ji-young dramatized the 2007 "Crossbow Terror Incident" and in "National Security" (literal translation: "Namyeong-dong 1985"), he once again returns to the fuzzy realm of creative nonfiction as filmic fodder. The film takes a long and gruelling look into the torture and trails of Kim Jong-tae (Park Won-sang), an ex-advisor to the Democratic United Party who is condemned to 22 days of pain, humiliation, and psychological suffering. The film takes place in 1985, a time when Korea was under the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. Kim, as an activist against the current government, is held at a special interrogation facility in Namyeong-dong and forced to 'confess' that he is a communist from North Korea and was involved, if not led, an anti-government movement. This much of the story is quickly revealed, and Chung wastes no time in getting to the meat of his second film, the torture,...More

[HanCinema's Box Office Review] January2013/02/02,
It was a hard month for foreign films here in Korea as January favoured three local films that, between them, held a tight grip on the ticket sales. Lee Hwan-gyeong's "Miracle in Cell No.7" may have stolen the show in the last weekend of the month, but it was Kim Ji-hoon's fiery epic "The Tower" and Jo Jin-kyoo's 5th comedy "Man on the Edge" that held that top position until then. In the foreign corner, two adaptations stood out in the form of the musical drama "Les Misérables" and "Life of Pi". The former has grossed $38.6 million over its six week run in Korean theatres, with "The Tower" close behind on $34.4 million,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "Miracle in Cell No.7"2013/01/25,
The main characters are retarded father Yong-Goo (played by Ryoo Seung-ryong) and his adorable seven year old daughter Ye-Seung (played by Kal So-won). Circumstances conspire to keep them apart, but through sheer determination and the help of other prison inmates, they're able to find time to be happy together. This family changes the hardened people around them for better. But inevitably, for all these attempts at happiness, tragedy strikes and people left my theater crying. "Miracle in Cell No.7" is an extremely manipulative movie emotionally, and oftentimes feel like it's cheating by forcing the audience to identify with these overwrought situations,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "National Security"2012/12/07,
For most of this film, a man is imprisoned and tortured. Who this man is, and why he is being tortured...really aren't that important. For nearly two hours, we watch him be brutalized and humiliated by his accusers. At one point an "interrogation expert" appears who astonishes everyone by apparently killing the victimized man by filling up the lungs with water, and continuing to do so long after his prisoner has lost consciousness. When it is discovered that the prisoner is not dead, despite appearances to the contrary, the other police give the expert a round of hearty applause. And all the while, the expert sings a happy working tune.
"National Security" is a truly painful film to watch. Having grown up in Bush-era America, I'm all too familiar with the sort of enhanced interrogation that this film displays in abundance,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] Korean Weekend Box Office 2012.11.23 ~ 2012.11.252012/11/25, HanCinema's Korean Box Office Review (2012.11.23 ~ 2012.11.25)
"Breaking Dawn: Part 2" once again struggle to surpass Jo Sung-hee's popular fantasy drama "A Werewolf Boy" as the battle for supernatural supremacy continued at the box office. "A Werewolf Boy" claimed some 550 880 admissions, and only narrowly dodged the big Hollywood hit which itself claimed 468, 965. Still admissions were lower this week with both these two powerhouses attracting half of what the weekend of the 24th bestowed upon them. Jo Sung-hee's film is also on the verge of overtaking "The Dark Knight Rises" as the fourth highest grossing film released in Korea this year. The latest Batman scored 6,396,528 admissions and currently "A Werewolf Boy" has stormed to 6,015,700 since its release at the end of last month,...More

[HanCinema's Film Review] "Unbowed": A Man, a Cause, and a Crossbow.2012/11/25, Film: "Unbowed"
Director:Chung Ji-youngStars:Ahn Sung-ki, Park Won-sang, Na Young-hee & Kim Ji-hoReview Score: 4 / 5
Also Try:"The Client", "Children..." or "The Crucible"
The Korean justice system has long endured a painful portrait when it comes being represented on the big screen. Korean cinema has generally targeted public authority figures such as corrupt cops and public prosecutors, self-preserving judges and politicians, as well as other devious public authority figures. Chung Ji-young's "Unbowed" follows a determined civilian as he fights his way through Korea's judicial system; only to eventually pick up his crossbow, point an arrow and the nearest judge, and let loose.
Ahn Sung-ki plays the accused, the stubborn, self-sacrificing and brilliant professor Kim Kyeong-ho. After diligently pointing out a critical error in his university's math exam, Seong-gi's trys to do the honourable thing in revealing the mistake to the students. However, his efforts are rejected and the faculty decides on keeping the error to themselves. Kim's impeccable character and unquestioning honour does not allow himself to accept their decision, and his defiance ultimately results in legal action against him,...More

Family movies are movies that the whole family can watch together, or movies that are meant to explore the meaning of family. If a movie satisfies both criteria, it will be a movie that fits perfectly into the category. Some examples from recent Korean family movies include "F,...More

Old `Swindle' Still Does the Trick2004/04/15, Source, By Joon Soh
Staff Reporter
With cutting dialogue, over-the-top violence and quirky soundtracks, director Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" transformed how movies presented the world of crime. And for years afterwards, every other film released in the United States and Europe,...More

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